The 162-acre tract of cropland known as the "Bender Farm" will be sold off to. McCrotty, and John Geary, as well as an unidentified male and female. Located on a main road, the Benders sold meals and supplies to travelers. I believe I read this year that the land where the house once stood got sold to someone. Some of the Benders' neighbors claimed that John and Kate were not brother and sister, but actually husband and wife. Then Kate would begin to charm the men with her social skills, flirting, or revealing her psychic gifts. As the men gave their full attention to the alluring Kate, Pa and John Bender, hiding behind the canvas, would strike the unsuspecting traveler in the skull with a hammer. And everything is in color! Fortunately, Rabbi returns in time to shut down the likely police shooting and receives a warning from the officer about keeping his colored boy out of sight in a town like that. Much folklore and legend surrounds the Benders, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction. After following a fresh trail of wagon tracks, a search party found that the Benders had gone to the town of nearby Thayer, some twelve miles to the north. According to the 1870 census, George and his wife, Mary Jane, were neighbors of. They purchased tickets on the northbound Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Train to Humboldt. Colonel York agreed that this was possible and remained for dinner. In the end, the artifacts, including the hammers, photos, and newspaper clippings, were placed in the Cherryvale Museum and can still be seen today at 215 East 4th Street. They were never caugnt. His son chose a narrow piece of land just north of his fathers; however, he never lived on his claim nor made any improvements. Guess well have to wait to find out . After a cabin, a barn with a corral, and a well were built, in the fall of 1871, Elvira Bender and daughter Kate arrived, and the cabin was divided into two rooms by a canvas wagon-cover. His habit of laughing aimlessly led to him being described as a half-wit, though many afterward believed this was simply a ruse to disguise his clever nature. The next day, Rabbi goes back to the appliance store and recovers his remaining cash from the brothers at gunpoint. Donald's family owns successful McDonald's franchises in their home town of Phoenix, Arizona. 12) December 1872: Abigail Roberts. The family soon built a small one-room framed cabin, a barn, and a corral and dug a well. Shortly after theyve settled, Rabbi leaves Satchel alone with his usual goodbye of, If I dont come back, Im dead or in jail. He drives into Liberal to see about the money he left behind, only to discover that the feed store was sold at auction and has been converted to an appliance store by a pair of brothers. Some say that they escaped, others that they were executed by a vengeful posse. Speaking English fluently with a German accent, he was said to have been social, but he was prone to laughing aimlessly, which led many people to think of him as a half-wit. 11) December 1872: Red Smith. I wouldn't have imagined a crazier hotel story other than H H Holmes and The Murder Castle. This is blatantly a reference to the Bender Family, a family of serial killers from late 1800s Kansas. The fate of the family remains unknown, with theories ranging from a lynching of the family to a successful escape. Yes it was. Elvira allegedly could not understand English, while the younger Benders denied the claim. Once in the cellar, the body would be stripped and later buried somewhere on the property, often in the orchard. The plaque was created for the show. John was prone to laughing aimlessly, which led many to consider him a "half-wit." The men then physically lifted the cabin and moved it to the side to dig under it, but no bodies were found. They admitted Dr. York had stayed with them and suggested the possibility that he had run into trouble with Indians. It was reported at the time that Kate was into free love, telling fortunes, and being a little too close to her brother. I have heard my grandfather tell of this story since I was a boy and Grandpa swears that this is the real story of what happened to the Benders. Good info. In the spring of 1873, Dr. York took it upon himself to look for the Lonchers, stopping at the homesteads along the trail to ask questions. According to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, the daughter of one of the Benders' victims, Mrs. Frances E. McCann, had reported the pair to authorities in early October after tracking them down. One weird oversight. Many innocent men under suspicion were also run out of the county by these committees.[5]. Touch for map. KANSAS HISTORICAL MARKER THE MELLON MOUNDS On this spot stood the Mellon Mounds, named for the infamous Mellon family, who lured unsuspecting travelers into their home, fed them and then dispatched them with a hammer. [18], A historical marker describing the Benders' crimes is located in the rest area at the junction of U.S. Route 400 and U.S. Route 169 north of Cherryvale. [7] Brockman would be arrested again 23 years later for the rape and murder of his own 18-year-old daughter.[8]. Deputy Sheriff Dick, along with Mrs. McCann, escorted the pair to Oswego, Kansas, where seven members of a 13-member panel confirmed the identification and committed them for trial. The family includes Andrew Mellon, one of the longest-serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries, along with prominent members in the judicial, banking, financial, business, and political professions, as well as a famous recluse, Cordelia Scaife May . No documentation or definitive proof of their relationships to one another, or where they were born, has ever been found. Rabbi would not have been one of the Mellons.). With the exception of McKenzie and York,[17] who were buried in Independence; the Longcors, who were buried in Montgomery County; and McCrotty, who was buried in Parsons, Kansas, none of the other bodies were claimed, and they were reburied at the base of a small hill 1 mile (1.6km) southeast of the Benders' orchard, one of several at the location now known as "The Benders Mounds". In its first three days of opening, it attracted more than 2,000 visitors. Everywhere Satchel and Rabbi appear together, someone calls out the color of Satchels skin and questions their connection. The texts read "Johannah Bender. Allegedly, while working at the Bender Inn, she earned her keep as a prostitute, adding an additional amount to the travelers bill for the privilege of laying with her. As Calamita advances on him, Rabbi tries to grip his gun well enough to shoot. At a fork of the Fall and Verdigris Rivers, they found the Benders with their wagon backed up against a fallen tree with canvas over it for shelter. My grandfather, who is approaching 80 years old, is always full of great stories, but he assured me that his father, who passed this on to him, knew what happened. With the full realization that there was a major problem in their township, the group decided to search every farmstead between Big Hill Creek and Drum Creek. At this point the customers felt uneasy and decided to leave, a move that almost certainly saved their lives. Although stories abound, the ultimate fate of the murderous Bender family is uncertain. [1][2] A knife with a four-inch tapered blade was reportedly found hidden in a mantel clock in the Bender house by Colonel York. Another group claimed they had caught the Benders while escaping to the south and lynched them before throwing their bodies into the Verdigris River. However, as more time passed, the disappearances became more frequent, and by the spring of 1873, the region had become strife with rumors, and travelers began to avoid the trail. Marker is on the grounds of the rest area located northeast of the intersection of US Highways 189 and 400, about three miles south of Morehead. When a traveler was seated at the table, his head was outlined against the curtain. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/washingtonhistor0014unse The CAashington Historical . [2] The elder Benders did not leave the train at Humboldt, but instead continued north to Kansas City, where it is believed they purchased tickets for St. Louis, Missouri.[1]. RELATED: Keep up with our Fargo Season Four recaps here! After the third hanging, they released him and he staggered home "as one who was drunken or deranged. While the two women were certainly criminals and liars, as their own defense attorney admitted, the charges were weak and many people doubted their identification as the Benders. Just after the Civil War ended, the United States government moved the Osage Indians from Labette County in southeast Kansas to the new Indian Territory in what would later become the state of Oklahoma. Thomas Jefferson was one of the first to excavate into a Native American burial mound, citing the disappearance of the "noble" Indianscaused by violence and the corruption of the encroaching white. The Benders are believed to have killed about a dozen people, including one child. barry mcguigan, daughter funeral; mellon mounds kansas murders Subreddit for the FX original TV series, Fargo. Anyway just had to mention this, bizarre crimes and female killers are my specialty and outside appearing in Red Dead 2, the Bloody Benders don't get a lot of attention. The body of a young girl was found with no injuries sufficient to cause death. From those who knew them and have written about the Benders:[4], She professed to be a medium of spiritualism, and delivered lectures on that subject. did phineas and ferb die in a car accident. Prying it open, the men found a six-foot-deep hole filled with clotted blood, causing a terrible odor. East/West may *look* like a detour into surrealist Midcentury Italian cinema when it opens, but the minute the wind starts blowing through black and white Kansas you know where you are. [5][6], Around the same time, neighboring communities began to make accusations that the Osage community was responsible for the disappearances, and Osage township arranged a meeting in the Harmony Grove schoolhouse. Mrs. Bender, a heavyset woman, was so unfriendly and had such sinister eyes that her neighbors began to call her a she-devil. To add to her fierce look, Ma Bender claimed to be a medium who could speak with the dead and boiled herbs and roots that she declared could be used to cast charms or wicked spells. He has a white man in his trunk, an informant who has helped him track Calamita to the Liberal, Kansas, area. One of the women would cut the victim's throat to ensure death, and the body was then dropped through the trap door. It is in Morehead in Montgomery County Kansas. Colonel York, leading a company of some 50 men, questioned every traveler along the trail and visited all the area homesteads. If you live in that town in Kansas today, oh yeah you know about it. Phone: 620-624-3885 Fax: 620-626-7629 Manager: Nora Rubio Email: Email Mead Lumber of Liberal Hours: Cemetery. Despite the lack of identification, the man's skull was displayed as that of "Pa Bender" in a Salmon saloon until Prohibition forced its closure in 1920 and the skull disappeared. Next to their room is a hospital man, an obese white man with bandages all over him and some kind of skin condition that makes him look monstrous to the passing child. When the party arrived at the inn they found the cabin empty of food, clothing, and personal possessions. On this spot stood the Mellon Mounds, named for the infamous Mellon family, who lured unsuspecting travelers into their home, fed them and then dispatched them with a hammer. So provocative was the Bender family tale that the Bender Museum was created in Cherryvale in 1961. The men with York were convinced the Benders and a neighboring family, the Roaches, were guilty and wanted to hang them all, but York insisted that evidence must be found. After last weeks sincere entry into all-out war, as well as the deaths of several key players, one might have hoped to watch the action in Kansas City escalate. Menu Hell the first album from the Smiths included a song about the Moors Murderers. betty crocker net worth 2020; vietnamese culture relationships; pastillas para dormir durante el embarazo; what does modern fit mean in men's shirts? Sunflower seeds are incredibly rich sources of many essential minerals. About 75 people attended the gathering, including both Bender men. Also one of the victims was the neighbor of the person who wrote Little House on the Prarie. I'd need to check but my gut feeling is that its real. They were released after being found not guilty, but were then immediately re-arrested for the Bender murders. rpp program apartments newport news. They set up an inn, lured people into staying, then either hit them with a hammer or cut there throats with a knife before burying them in an apple orchard. Look for these with their cute sunflowers. CHERRYVALE The chain of low hills known as the Bender Mounds extends in a diagonal seven miles northeast of here, islands of limestone and scrubby trees over level fields where this time of year soybeans have just been harvested. In the 19th century, Kansas was a bloody place, especially before the Civil War, as " Free-Soilers " and slavery advocates "duked" it out for control of the new territory. Other bodies found in the garden were those of Henry McKenzies mutilated remains, three men by the names of Ben Brown, W.F. Johnny Boyles body was found in the well. In addition to the museum, southeast Kansas may be the only place where a state historical marker celebrates mass murder. Nothing like this sickening series of crimes had ever been recorded in the whole history of the country.. Location. In the end, it was Kate who was primarily blamed for the numerous bloody murders that, even at her young age, was the inspiration for the crimes. In the first season, Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman), daughter of former state trooper, now diner owner, Lou Solverson (Carradine), must overcome the good-natured goofery of her department as she tracks the unparalleled malevolence of Loren Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton), who in serpent-like fashion enters the ear of persecuted loser Lester . While popular retelling of the story holds that John Jr. and Kate were siblings, contemporary newspapers reported . Whether the stuff of folklore or fact, many believe that the trapped souls of these century-old ghosts continue to lurk at the site today. [5][18] Ma Bender and Kate would then rifle the body for money, pushing him through the trap door into the hole below the cabin, where Kate would slit his throat. An American Indian legend claimed any twister approaching Topeka from the southwest would have its tail clipped off by Burnett's Mound, a sacred burial ground. From there, they traveled to an outlaw colony thought to be in the border region between Texas and New Mexico. In 1967, three of the Bender hammers were gifted to the museum by the Dick family. Whenever he is asked a question about himself, Satchels response is that he is hungry. The Benders are believed to have killed about a dozen people, including one child., Although stories abound, the ultimate fate of the murderous Bender family is uncertain. [5], When York repeated the claim, Elvira became enraged, said the woman was a witch who had cursed her coffee, and ordered the men to leave her house, revealing for the first time that "her sense of the English language" was much better than was let on. ", "Old Mrs. Bender was a dirty old Dutch crone. (AP) - A man already in prison . The vacated land was then made available to homesteaders, who, for the most part, were a group of hard-working pioneers farming the areas softly rolling hills and windswept prairies. One may have been Jack Bogart, whose horse was purchased from a friend of the Benders after he went missing in 1872. Body found in Drum Creek with a crushed skull and throat cut. [1][2][3], The area was already widely known for "horse thieves and villains, and vigilance committees often "arrested" some for the disappearances, only for them to be later released by the authorities. Satchel walks down the road with his dog.